Leka Zogu, who has died aged 72, was the pretender to the Albanian throne. His father, Ahmet Zogu, had proclaimed himself King Zog I of Albania in 1928 and married Geraldine Apponyi, daughter of a Hungarian count and an American heiress, in 1938. Leka was born the following year, just two days before the Italian invasion of Albania from which Zog and his family fled into permanent exile. The monarchy was abolished by the Albanian communists in 1946. Leka spent most of his life in exile in Europe, Egypt and South Africa. After Zog died in Paris in 1961, Leka was proclaimed king of the Albanians by an Albanian national assembly in exile.

During the 1970s, as friends of General Franco, Leka and his mother lived in Spain. In 1975 he married an Australian teacher, Susan Cullen-Ward. Throughout his life he remained a controversial figure, carrying a personal arsenal with him that led to several arrests on arms-smuggling charges, the first being in Thailand in 1977. Two years after that, Leka was expelled from Spain on charges of supporting irredentist activities. He claimed that his "government in exile" organised guerrilla operations inside communist Albania but to date there has been no evidence of this. He finally found refuge in Johannesburg, where his son, also called Leka, was born in 1982.

With the arrival of democracy in Albania, Leka briefly attempted an uninvited visit to Tirana in 1993 but was asked to leave immediately because his passport listed his occupation as "king of the Albanians". He was bluntly told that he would be readmitted only if he were in possession of an ordinary citizen's passport.

Leka appeared unaware of how weak support for the monarchy was inside Albania. However, at the height of the Yugoslav wars of secession, with more than a million ethnic Albanians living in the former Yugoslavia, his advocacy for a unified ethnic Albanian nation gained him widespread support among the Albanian diaspora and caused deep concern among Albania's neighbours and in international circles.

Having set these alarm bells ringing, in 1997 Leka returned once more to Albania amid the violent uprising that followed the collapse of pyramid investment schemes. He went first to his father's birthplace in the central district of Mat, where he hoped to build a new powerbase among clan loyalists. In the traditionally rightwing northern city of Shkodër, he and his motley entourage were greeted by enthusiastic crowds. Despite pockets of monarchist support in the south of Albania, the north has historically been more receptive to the notion of the monarchy. The return of Leka, who portrayed himself as a source of stability, served only to further inflame Albania's volatile politics.

The question of whether the monarchy should be restored was resolved by a referendum held simultaneously with parliamentary elections in June 1997, resulting in an overwhelming vote for continued republicanism. The monarchists claimed that the result was invalid due to manipulation of the results by the Socialist party. Leka attended various rallies where he called on Albanians to protect their vote. On 3 July, dressed in military fatigues and with a grenade and a pistol strapped to his leg, he greeted around 2,000 supporters in Tirana's Skanderbeg Square to chants of "Albanians will defend their vote. Down with the communists. We want a king." The crowd, led by Leka, marched down the capital's central boulevard as bursts of gunfire caused one death and several injuries.

Leka failed to respond to a summons from the prosecutor's office to appear in court, and on 12 July headed back to Johannesburg. In his absence, he was tried and sentenced to three years' imprisonment for attempting to organise an armed insurrection. Being surrounded by a heavily armed and sometimes violent entourage had given the "royal" delegation an aura of dangerous unpredictability. But Leka lacked charisma and appeared insecure and ill at ease with those he did not know well. He clearly found it difficult to adjust to post-communist Albania.

After more than 70 members of parliament asked for the royal family to be allowed to return to Albania, Leka was granted a pardon in 2002. He was given back some confiscated property but largely refrained from involving himself in politics, and from 2005 officially withdrew from public life.

Leka's wife died in 2004. He is survived by his son.

• Leka Zogu, Albanian pretender, born 5 April 1939; died 30 November 2011